


Rosemary

by dustandroses



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Community: tamingthemuse, First Kiss, First Time, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-20
Updated: 2014-01-20
Packaged: 2018-01-09 09:37:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1144418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dustandroses/pseuds/dustandroses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another day, another demon for Spike to kill.  Unfortunately, this one turns out a little tougher than normal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rosemary

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hawk_soaring](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawk_soaring/gifts).



> **Prompt Notes:** Inspiration for this chapter taken from the Live Journal community Tamingthemuse prompt #391: Damage Assessment  
>  **Notes:**  
>  Spoilers: Through Season Six, Episode Eight: Tabula Rasa  
> Thanks to Ozsaur for the advice

“Giles! Giles!!!” Xander rushed into the Magic Box, shouting and… Okay, he could admit it: he was flailing. But Spike had just saved his life, and now the demon that had almost chomped on Xander was chomping on Spike. He needed help, and he needed it _now_!

Giles stepped out from the back room, frowning heavily. “Xander, please. Tara and I are trying to have a serious discussion here, and I don’t need the distraction.”

Tara had followed Giles out, and her eyes opened wide when she saw the blood on Xander’s shirt. “Are you hurt, Xander?”

“What?” Xander asked, confused. He wasn’t the one dying, Spike was. He could hardly feel the shallow wound across his chest. “Maybe a little bit, but Spike needs our help!”

“Spike does? What did he do this time? Did he take out another loan from that shark demon?” Giles hadn’t been too happy when Spike’s loan shark, Teeth, had tried to kill them all the day Willow’s spell had taken everyone’s memories. 

“No! We were on our way home from the Bronze, and this thing came out from between two buildings, and attacked me. Spike pulled me away from it and told me to come get you. He said the only way to kill it was to dip something in rosemary oil. He suggested a crossbow bolt. Now hurry, we have to save Spike.”

Giles wasn’t moving fast enough, so Xander ran for the backroom and grabbed up two crossbows and a dozen bolts before heading back out to the front room.

Tara was running her hands over the bottles on a shelf in the oils and tinctures aisle. “Rosemary oil!” She waved it as she ran back to them. “You have crossbow bolts?”

Giles was still standing in the same spot, and Xander set the crossbows and bolts on the table. He looked around to find something to put the oil in. “Can we use this bowl, Giles?” 

Finally, Giles came to life. “Good Lord, no!” He snatched the bowl in question out of Xander’s hands. “You don’t need to dip them, rub the oil on with your hands or a cloth. That should work just fine for a Shraznarcd demon. It doesn’t take much.” He set the bowl on another shelf, far away from Xander, then removed a couple of books from the table, clearing the space for the oily crossbow bolts. 

“It was a Shraznarcd, was it not? Very tall, leathery brown skin, red eyes, long black claws?”

“Yeah, that’s right. How did you know?”

Tara poured oil in his hands, and Xander started rubbing the oil onto the bolts. Giles picked up the two crossbows, and tested both before nodding his approval, and loading one of the rosemary oiled bolts into the first bow. 

“I’m unaware of another demon that’s allergic to rosemary. Shraznarcd are well known for that reaction. They’re very quick, and extremely strong, so stay well away from it. And be careful with both loading and firing these bolts, Xander, the oil will make them react unpredictably; looser in the bow, and slippery when loading.”

Xander sighed with relief. He’d been afraid that Giles would refuse to help Spike. Xander would have gone alone, he was good with a crossbow, but Giles was an excellent shot. 

They left Tara minding the shop, and headed out. Xander had only been gone ten minutes, but when you’re fighting for your life, that’s a long time. He was afraid that he was overreacting to this. Okay, yes, he probably did need Giles’ help, but he’d panicked. Spike needed him, and he wasn’t going to let him down.

He and Spike were getting closer every day and Xander was sick at the thought of losing the one person who thought he was worth the trouble they went to over him. Spike thought he was special. No one had ever treated him the way Spike did. He’d never said anything, but Xander knew Spike wanted him. 

They heard the noise before they saw either of them. The Shraznarcd was squealing, and Spike was shouting, his battered and beaten body testament to how difficult this battle had been.

“And _that’s_ for… _Touching. My. Xander!_ ” Spike gave the demon another forceful blow with every word, and on Xander’s name, he delivered a powerful roundhouse kick that dropped it flat out on its back.

They stopped in the middle of the street, and Xander could feel Giles’ eyes on him, but he ignored that, and rushed to Spike’s side as he collapsed to the asphalt. 

“Spike! You did it!” 

Xander gave Spike enough support that he was sitting up, but he had a feeling that was all the vampire could manage at the moment. He was a mess. “You didn’t need us, after all. I could have saved that whole trip to the Magic Box!” He set down the crossbow, and tried to find a way to wipe the blood out of Spike’s eyes, but since it was coming from the cut on his forehead it came right back again. 

“Nah, mate, he’s not down for the count. You’ll have to use some rosemary to do him in – you’ve got it all over your hands, so I guess that means you found some in the Magic Box?”

“Oh yeah, Tara brought it out, and I wiped down about a dozen bolts, just in case.”

Pained laughter erupted out of Spike. “How many Shraznarcd did you think we had? There’s only the one, not an army. There better not be, I don’t think I could handle more than one at a time, no matter what kind of incentive I had.”

That reminded Xander. “You saved my life! Thanks, Spike.” 

Spike’s sexy smile was all the confirmation Xander needed. That smile was aimed at no one but Xander, and he felt heat flush his entire body as he thought about the things that smile promised. They might have fallen into a kiss right then and there, except for the sudden reminder of Giles’ presence.

“Oh, Xander, no.”

His head swung around to look at Giles. “What?” 

“Aren’t you the one who warned Buffy about the dangers of loving the ‘evil undead’? Aren’t you the one who told her their relationship would end badly? Aren’t you the one who said the only good vampire was a dead one?” He took off his glasses, and pinched his nose, the way he did when he had a massive headache coming on. “I am so disappointed in you.”

Xander had heard those last words from his teachers, his principals, his parents, it didn’t matter, it always just slid off his back like water off a duck. Giles’ words hurt more than all of the other’s together.

Spike struggled to his feet. “You’ll keep a respectful tongue in your mouth when you talk to him, Watcher, or I’ll find a way to punish you for your words, no matter what I have to do.”

Xander shivered. He believed Spike, even though he had no idea how Spike’d get away with that. Grabbing the crossbow, Xander stood, his arm going around Spike’s waist to help keep him steady. He could see the way Spike wavered on his feet. He was in no shape to deal with this. He was about to suggest that they continue this conversation…oh, maybe _never_ , but he didn’t get a chance to say anything.

Spike grabbed the crossbow out of Xander’s hands with supernatural speed, and had loosed a bolt in Giles’ direction before either of them could say a word. 

Giles gasped as the bolt slid past his right ear, taking down the Shraznarcd demon standing behind him, its beady red eyes opening widely as it keeled over, a rosemary scented bolt piercing its forehead. They left Giles blinking in the street, a crossbow held tightly to his chest.

* * *

Spike had used up all the reserve blood Xander kept in the freezer, and refused to let him go out and try to find more at this time of the night. He’d taken a shower, and come out blood free, and partially healed. Some of his minor wounds had totally disappeared already, and the major ones had begun to close, even though he’d need more blood before those healed completely. Go, vampire healing.

Spike slouched on a stool in the middle of Xander’s kitchen, while Xander tried to bandage up the worst of his wounds. The scent of rosemary hung in the air, despite the half-a-dozen times Xander had washed his hands. His clothes were probably soaked with it. He didn’t pay it much attention, though. With his hands on Spike’s body, there was very little room in his mind for anything else.

There were claw marks on Spike’s back where his ribs had taken the brunt of a blow, and saved his internal organs from being sliced and diced. The cut on his forehead was nothing but a jagged red line, and Xander ran his finger over it, glad to see it healing so well. There was a set of five thin lines above Spike’s right nipple, short and perfectly matched, as if they had been intentionally drawn there. 

Bruising purpled Spike’s left hip, leading around to his back, over his kidneys. That must have hurt. His jaw was just as bruised, and his right eye had a hell of a shiner. It was doing better since Spike drank the blood. The swelling had gone down, and there were signs of yellow mixed in with the black and purple, already. 

Spike sat quietly while Xander bandaged his wounds, and Xander knew something must be wrong. Spike was never this quiet; he always had a foot moving or he played with an unlit cigarette, or with his lighter. He was always moving. Xander was considering calling Ghostbusters to figure out what had gotten into him.

“Are you all right, Spike?”

Spike turned to him. “What? Yeah. I’m fine. Why?”

Spike was fine? Xander rolled his eyes. That just proved his point. “You’re not acting like an ass, and you haven’t said bloody once in the last hour. Something’s wrong.”

“Oh, ha _bloody_ ha. You’re so funny, Harris.”

“So,” Xander said, “what’s going on?”

Spike studied Xander for a moment before he spoke. “I doubt very much your mates are going to react to you and me any better than the Watcher did.”

“Yeah, well, I think that’s a given.” He grinned sheepishly. “But then I’ve done the same to both of them at one point or other, so I’m not worried about it.”

Spike’s eyebrow went up in question.

“Buffy will kid me mercilessly for a month or two over the way I hounded her about Angel, but she’ll get over it. Other than that, it’s none of their business.”

“And the Watcher? I saw how hard you took his words. You have a lot of respect for him.”

“Yeah, but he’s not perfect. Giles blindsided me tonight, because I was too frantic with worry about you to think about that kind of crap. In the future, if he says anything about my choices, I’ll have a word or two for him about a guy by the name of _Ripper_. He’s made his mistakes. He has no room to point fingers at me for taking my chances with you.”

“You’re pretty set on this, then?”

Xander felt a heavy weight in his stomach, but he played it off with a joke. “Why? Are you breaking up with me before we’ve even kissed? That’s harsh, man.”

“Nah. I wouldn’t do that.” 

Spike’s smile turned sexy, and Xander felt the relief flood through him. Or was that lust? 

“I like the way you look at me when you think I’m not looking. Hungry and possessive-like. It works for me.”

“You like that? I thought you’d think I was moving in on your territory, ‘cause you have possessive down to an art form.”

Spike shrugged one shoulder, looking like sex personified. “Doesn’t everyone like knowing someone wants you enough to make a fuss over you?”

He ran his hand up Xander’s jaw, and pulled him close. “It’s good to be wanted.”

Their first kiss was heavy with want and need, and the scent of rosemary, and Xander opened his mouth to Spike’s hunger, letting it draw him in. Spike was right. It was good to be wanted.


End file.
